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Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has revealed how he honed one of his biggest strengths: free-kicks.<\/p>\n
Rashford has scored some big goals throughout his career, some of which have been free-kicks. Memorable ones include a sensational strike against Chelsea in 2019 to send United through to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, and the goal he bagged against Real Madrid last season to seal the La Liga title for Barcelona.<\/p>\n
Few United players, if any, can match Rashford\u2019s ability to strike a ball cleanly and powerfully.<\/p>\n
Rashford discussed his approach to dead-ball situations with England\u2019s media, detailing the execution of an effective free-kick.<\/p>\n
The Carrington academy graduate started, \u201cI always find it easier in a game to execute, because I always feel like you\u2019re sharper in a game than training because of the adrenaline. But if you feel confident that you can score, always go with that!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, I place the ball. I like to stay on top of the ball until the goalkeeper\u2019s put his wall in place. Then I\u2019ll take around three steps back, and then a little step forward, so two and a half steps. I don\u2019t have a set position for the ball, I just make sure it\u2019s nice and flat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll then take some short steps, because from here I can generate quite a lot of power, but it\u2019s more about getting the ball up and down (over the wall) because that\u2019s going to beat the keeper more than it being in the actual corner, so I just try to focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cI feel that from free-kicks, it doesn\u2019t matter where your feet are pointing as you don\u2019t want to give too much away to the goalkeeper. Usually when you\u2019re ball-striking, the angle of the planted foot is where you\u2019re shooting so I try not to give any of that away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s how I actually learned when I was younger and it\u2019s a clear thing for the goalkeeper to look where your foot is facing to see where you\u2019re going, unless you\u2019re going to reverse or put a bit of disguise on it. You have to have different techniques from different positions. If you\u2019re wider, you need to curl it and hide the ball from the goalkeeper for as long as possible, so I try and shoot flatter balls.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019m shooting until as late as possible, so in the meantime I\u2019m always looking to see if there\u2019s any better options. The other team will think you\u2019re going to shoot, but if someone ends up free on the end of the wall for a pass, then that\u2019s why I like to spend as much time in this position (over the ball) so I\u2019m ready to play it short.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rashford\u2019s knuckle-ball approach has frequently drawn parallels to that of Cristiano Ronaldo. Nevertheless, Rashford has asserted that the two are distinct, a conviction reinforced by their time together in United\u2019s first-team setup.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last technique I\u2019d use (from distance) is the \u2018knuckle ball\u2019, which is effective from central positions and is just about making it really difficult for the keeper to save. And if he does save it, then it might fall out into a dangerous position and one of your teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you\u2019ve got the technique, you don\u2019t have to change much but the hardest thing is just getting the technique. Everyone seems to think it\u2019s all about power, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s about ball contact, with as least time as possible touching the ball and no follow through.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cYou\u2019re not always looking to put it in the top corner. If it\u2019s really wet, I want to make sure it bounces before it gets to the keeper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want the (ball) valve to be where you contact the ball and then I\u2019ll take four steps back and to the left. It\u2019s a low-ball contact and a then a straight stop with the leg after you make contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people say some of my shots are like Cristiano\u2019s but we have a different technique and having trained with him, it\u2019s definitely different. I\u2019ve never copied anyone or mirrored it, I\u2019ve just found what I\u2019m comfortable with and went with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rashford will be desperate to have his future wrapped up as soon as possible, freeing him up to do what he does best: scoring spectacular free-kicks and adding more chapters to his legacy.<\/p>\n
As it stands, he is poised to be reintegrated into the United team following Barcelona\u2019s decision not to sign him permanently. Both parties still prefer a parting of ways but in the event that an exit is not secured before the close of the window, Michael Carrick is prepared to work with the player.<\/p>\n
Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n The Peoples Person has been one of the world\u2019s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1 Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has revealed how he honed one of his biggest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}